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To: russwinter who wrote (59749)	4/27/2006 8:47:14 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (13) \| Respond to of 110194

<<current cycle of liquidity generation and its direct consequences will be much different>> ... inflation of everything we need and deflation of everything we have, unless, that is, we have Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, U, and anything with carbon in it and burns. be bullish, act II will be even better ;0)

To: russwinter who wrote (59749)	4/27/2006 9:18:43 PM
From: regli	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

This section from an article by Stephen King adds an interesting dimension to this: Message 22365430 Message 22368423 "... One mechanism that doesn't seem to be working to the advantage of the US these days is the emerging markets channel. During the 1990s, higher US interest rates often signalled disaster for emerging markets. Whether it was the 1994 Mexican crisis, the 1997 Thai crisis or the 2000 Argentinian crisis, US interest rates were heading upwards. Emerging markets back then were acutely vulnerable to the effects of tighter US monetary policy. When US interest rates were low, emerging markets attracted excessive capital inflows that typically led to domestic overheating, asset price inflation and big current-account deficits. Once US interest rates started to rise, however, the process went into reverse: capital headed for the exit, current account deficits could no longer be funded, and emerging market economies collapsed. Oddly enough, this was all rather good news for the US economy. Rising US interest rates placed a lid on US inflation not so much because US growth slowed down but because the US, indirectly, benefited from the deflationary forces unleashed within emerging markets. Collapsing economies elsewhere in the world led to lower commodity prices and a strong dollar, at a stroke maKING US imports a lot cheaper. The US had, inadvertently, found a mechanism by which domestic inflation could be lowered without the need for domestic output losses. This mechanism no longer works. Emerging markets have deliberately avoided running current-account deficits. Indeed, the offset to the ever-widening US current-account deficit has been an ever-growing emerging market current-account surplus. Partly a deliberate act of policy - China has no intention of going the same way as Thailand or Mexico in the 1990s - it's also a reflection of rising commodity prices, which have provided higher export revenues for the likes of Russia, the Middle East and some countries in South America. They, in turn, have benefited from the continuation of strong growth in China, India and other fast-developing areas of the world economy. Unlike the 1990s, therefore, US monetary policy isn't having much of an effect elsewhere in the world. Commodity prices are still rising and, as a result, US inflation isn't behaving itself. ..."

To: russwinter who wrote (59749)	4/28/2006 3:33:08 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Chinese pirates clone NEC theinquirer.net Not just the technology the entire company By Nick Farrell: Friday 28 April 2006, 07:11 CHINESE IT pirates seem to be getting a bit ambitious. The latest trick is not just to copy a company's technology, but to steal the entire operation. Apparently in China one bunch cloned the technology mega-outfit NEC. It set up pirated NEC factories and warehouses and offices and produced knock off NEC pirated goods. NEC wondered what was happening to its Chinese operations and hired detectives to find out. Two years later the real NEC, along with Inspector Knacker of the Beijing yard, swooped on the factories and shut them down. Evidence seized in raids on 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan over the past year showed that the counterfeiters had set up what amounted to a parallel NEC brand. They had even networked partnerships with more than 50 electronics factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

To: russwinter who wrote (59749)	4/28/2006 4:18:12 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

Air fails to make the grade fredericksburg.com Though there has been some improvement, poor air quality persists in much of the region, according to annual report. Date published: 4/28/2006 By RUSTY DENNEN Some Fredericksburg-area localities, along with Northern Virginia, have gotten poor grades when it comes to air pollution. But statewide and nationally, Americans are breathing a bit easier, according to the American Lung Association, which released its State of the Air: 2006 report yesterday. It gave Stafford, Prince William and Madison counties F's on their report cards--the same grades they've received for the past two years. Caroline County improved from an F to a D, and Fauquier County again this year got the best grade of the group--a C. Localities with air-monitoring stations were assigned grades--A through F--based on how often their air quality crossed into unhealthful categories of the Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index for ground-level ozone pollution, or smog, and particle pollution. The city of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, King George and Culpeper counties don't have monitors and aren't graded. Ginny Gamble, spokeswoman for the lung association in Virginia, said yesterday that while particle pollution statewide improved from a D to a B, "We still received an F in smog and we'll use that as a challenge to make changes to improve air quality." Ozone in high concentrations can cause throat irritation, inflammation of the respiratory tract and damage to lung tissue. Emissions from vehicles, power plants and other industries contain chemicals that react with sunlight to create ozone, the main ingredient in smog. Soot pollution, mainly from power plants and industry, can cause or aggravate a host of respiratory ailments, particularly asthma. The report analyzed three years of data (2002 through 2004) from the EPA's Aerometric Information Retrieval System database. It calculated the number of days air quality at monitoring stations fell within five color-coded levels: 0 to 64 parts per billion of ozone, good (green); 65 to 85 ppb, moderate (yellow); 86 to 104 ppb, unhealthful for sensitive groups (orange); 105 to 124 ppb, unhealthful (red); and 125 to 374 ppb, very unhealthful (purple). Localities rating an F generally had at least 10 orange days, with one or more days in the red or purple category. Most of the ozone and particle pollution in the Fredericksburg area comes from industry, power plants and vehicle emissions. Gamble said the improvements in airborne particle pollution statewide are a direct result of power plants taking action to reduce them. Some of that has been voluntary, while others have been forced to clean up their acts. Two of Virginia's perennial particle polluters--the Mirant plant in Alexandria and Dominion's Chesterfield power plant--installed equipment to reduce soot emissions. It's been an ongoing program at Chesterfield, but last year, Mirant was temporarily closed after it violated air-quality standards. One problem with the data in the air report, however, is that there are still relatively few particle-monitoring stations in Virginia. There are none in the Fredericksburg area; the closest stations monitoring those pollutants are in Northern Virginia and Richmond. The report says that Washington, Baltimore and Pittsburgh rank among the worst in the nation for both particle and ozone pollution. Among the findings: More than half of the U.S. population--about 150 million people--lives in counties with unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution. Still, things are slowly improving nationally due to stricter regulations and industry conservation efforts, officials say. "We're seeing the benefits of cleaning up dirty power plants with healthier air and a better quality of life. But that doesn't mean it's clean enough, and we've still got a lot of work to do," said John L. Kirkwood, the lung association's president and chief executive officer. To reach RUSTY DENNEN:540/374-5431